


The Warrior/Maiden Podcast

by placetne



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, And then has to interview Jaime, Brienne reluctantly hosts a podcast, F/M, Past Cersei Lannister/Jaime Lannister, Podcaster AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-02-26 14:04:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18718552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/placetne/pseuds/placetne
Summary: Brienne's boss, Catelyn Stark, somehow talked her into becoming a culture review podcaster. When her podcast goes viral, her producer, Pod, and social media intern, Sansa, start lining up interviews, including Brienne's favorite disgraced actor-turned-stunt coordinator, Jaime Lannister.





	1. Going Viral

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! I have been reading all the amazing J/B fanfic in this community for a long time now, and I thought I would try to contribute something. This is my first-ever fanfic, inspired by my love for Jaime and Brienne and by my love for movie/TV podcasts. I am hoping to update approximately weekly. I would love y'all's feedback; hope you enjoy!

Brienne had been reluctant from the start. While she enjoyed writing reviews, recording them for a podcast felt too vulnerable. But Catelyn had insisted. Twitter constantly complained about the lack of female podcasters, Catelyn reasoned, so Brienne’s voice would make a welcome change, especially since her detailed breakdowns of fight choreography would give her an even broader appeal (Which was code for: Maybe men will listen to this without bringing up vocal fry in every iTunes review?). So, Brienne became a podcaster, with Podrick Payne as her longsuffering and loyal producer, and Warrior/Maiden was born.

At first, Warrior/Maiden had a small audience, made up mostly of her already loyal Stoneheart readers—she was glad to know her work at Catelyn’s magazine was good enough to earn some downloads. Her episodes were short and came out twice a week—fifteen minutes each of her thoughts on whatever shows or movies she had reviewed recently. Like always, she focused on fight choreography and character arcs and how the two should play into one another. And, like always, she spent an inordinate amount of time railing against the very concept of a “Mary Sue.” One particularly vitriolic episode, about the treatment of women in a new historical epic about the Battle of the Trident, got some traction on Twitter. A few feminist blogs signal-boosted the episode, and Brienne saw a spike in both listeners and engagement with the Twitter account. Thankfully, Catelyn’s daughter, Sansa, was interning for Stoneheart at that point and offered to handle the horrific social media side of things. Now, Brienne had her little Warrior/Maiden team all set, and she felt very content to remain mildly well-known for a medium-sized podcast.

Brienne was working from home, as was her wont on Fridays. After being in the office for four days, with recording sessions on both Monday and Wednesday, she relished the opportunity for a quiet, productive way to end her week. Then her phone rang.

“Bri, please, please, please tell me you have checked Twitter today!” Sansa was clearly excited about something. 

“Nope, I’ve been struggling through this Ironborn: Fate of the Drowned review. I mean, honestly, how many uninspired submarine movies do we need—”

“BRI. Focus. Open Twitter,” Sansa interrupted.

Upon opening the app, Brienne immediately saw that she had been tagged in Varys’s latest weekly culture review. Clicking on the article, she saw that their Wednesday episode, focusing on the fluidity and grace of the fight choreography in the latest episode of A Girl Has No Name, had been selected by Varys as one of his week’s highlights. Varys had called it “a refreshing perspective on an often-underrated ensemble show.” Brienne quickly scrolled through her Twitter notifications, seeing that the fans had quickly retweeted the article and that there was a great deal of new engagement with her own personal account. She quickly closed the app—the last thing she wanted was to see the reactions to her account avatar.

“Sansa, did we know this was going to happen? I didn’t know Warrior/Maiden was even on Varys’s radar.”

“Pod and I scoured our emails this morning, and no, we didn’t have any forewarning. But, thank the Seven, Pod is so efficient, and we are going to be able to release today’s episode early to try to maximize on this opportunity! We are already emailing some people from our dream guest list to see if we can capitalize on this. And we were thinking—” 

“Sansa, please slow down. I need a minute.” Brienne said, between focusing on taking deep, calming breaths. At their last goal-setting meeting, the Warrior/Maiden team had decided they wanted to start incorporating interviews with stunt people, fight choreographers, and perhaps even actors at some point. Interspersing the short weekly review shows with some longform interviews would give the show some needed variety. And Brienne had been able to hide her nerves, since the profile of the show wasn’t nearly large enough for one-on-one interviews to be an immediate threat. But now, it seemed that threat was imminent. She couldn’t imagine having to talk to someone over video chat for the podcast. Or even worse, in person at her recording studio. She had trouble getting her coffee order out correctly some days, how was she supposed to interview people she admired?

“Bri, I’ve got to go get ready for the episode to drop, but could we have an emergency Warrior/Maiden meeting tomorrow? I’ll add it to your calendar. Enjoy the limelight!”

Brienne proceeded to do the exact opposite of that. She texted her dad to let him know that she was okay but was going to be turning her phone off for the day, then she settled in to finish her Ironborn review. She had to self-edit the piece twice before submitting it to Catelyn—Euron Greyjoy was a hack who really only cared about gore and nudity—but then she was done with work for the day. She moved from her home office to her living room, opting to stay in and skip her usual workout. She felt like hiding away from people today, the thought of even turning on her phone too much to handle currently. 

She decided she was going to treat herself—wine and her all-time favorite movie, Burn Them All, starring Jaime Lannister. She pushed down the thought that he was on her dream podcast guest list almost as soon as it popped into her head. She was not going to stress about the strategy meeting tomorrow; she was going to relax. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Jaime Lannister hated Fridays. Every other day of the week, he was on set, either choreographing fights or supervising his stunt performers. A former actor, famous for doing his own stunt work, he had pivoted to be a stunt coordinator after an incident on set greatly reduced the mobility in his right arm. Which unfortunately meant he had to go to studio meetings on Fridays lead by none other than the studio head and his father, Tywin Lannister. 

This week’s meeting had gone about as they always did—his father steamrolled everyone in the room, but especially Jaime and Tyrion, then abruptly released his terrified employees. Jaime was following Tyrion back to his brother’s office, venting as he always did after these meetings:

“Tyrion, honestly, how does he expect anyone to be productive after being told they are worthless for upwards of an hour? The man has never met an employee he likes.”

“Brother, didn’t I hire you an assistant to complain to? I have a lunch meeting with the lovely Daenerys Targaryen, during which I have to be at my most charming. Khalasar Studios has cut ties with her, and I plan to convince her to let me produce her next picture. So, please, go find Bronn.”

“I will remember this next time you need me to rescue you from another boring investor meeting.” Jaime glared at his brother, then laughed as he turned to go to his own office. Maybe he could leave early and let Bronn handle all his emails today?

Jaime realized with a great deal of frustration that Bronn was not at his desk, remembering that he had sent Bronn to do some site scouting for the next film he was working on. He settled in to work through his own emails. Almost immediately, the email from a Stark at Stoneheart caught his eye. Catelyn had little patience for his father, and so she and her writers rarely reached out to Casterly Pictures for anything. Intrigued, he opened the email. It was from Sansa, rather than Catelyn. Apparently, he was invited to appear on a podcast with some woman named Tarth. The email included a link to a Varys review. Jaime preferred music to podcasts during his workouts, but Myrcella loved podcasts. He picked up his phone to call her.

“Uncle Jaime! Hi!”

“Hi Myrcella, how are you?”

“I’m doing well, but I have to go into work for my internship soon. What’s up?”

“Have you heard of a podcast called Warrior/Maiden?” Jaime said, reading the title from the email. Myrcella’s response was immediate and quite loud.

“HAVE I? It is ONLY my FAVORITE culture review podcast! Brienne is the absolute best. She totally gets the importance of production elements to conveying character beats, she is, like, an amazing feminist, and her workout videos on Twitter are ABSOLUTE goals! Why? Don’t tell me you are finally going to start listening!”

“Well, I got an invitation to go on the—”

“WHAT? Uncle Jaime, you HAVE to! You could meet Brienne! And get a selfie with her for me! I didn’t even know she and Pod had planned to add guests!”

“Okay, okay, I get it, clearly I need to go on this podcast. No promises, but I’ll at least send over my availability.”

“Yay!!! I cannot wait, I’m only going to be one degree of separation away from Brienne Tarth! I really do have to go, Uncle Jaime, but don’t worry I will be definitely be sending you lots of episodes and articles, so you can be adequately prepared to appreciate this experience! Love you.”

“Bye, Myrcella. Have fun at work. Love you.”

Jaime, as promised, sent the dates he was available for recording to Sansa Stark. The timing actually couldn’t have been better, as he was currently wrapping up one film and would have some downtime before he started work on the next one. However, he couldn’t let go of the feeling that he knew the name Tarth. He tried Googling it, and all he got were booking sites for trips to the island. He decided to stop thinking about it and hope he remembered later.

He finished his emails and moved on to reviewing interview tapes for potential new stunt performers. He ordered lunch into his office, as he was definitely absorbed in the work. As he was about to finish up for the day the name “Selwyn Tarth” hit him. He immediately typed it into Google and realized where he knew the name from.

Selwyn Tarth had been one of the best stunt drivers in the Seven Kingdoms, but he had retired after a tragic accident led to the death of his wife and three of four children. It seemed the podcast host was the fourth child. Now he was getting more excited to meet her—her father had done the driving for the Mad Jon films, which were maybe his all-time favorites.

Checking his email, he saw that he would be meeting her a week from Wednesday.


	2. Chapter 2: Preparation for the Pod by Pod (and Sansa)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, okay, I know I said "approximately weekly" but that was before my heart got ripped out of my chest last night. I needed a little sweetness today. (Also I wanted to avoid homework.) I would love any and all feedback, thank you!
> 
> *Please note the rating changed, because Bronn (and Jaime, as we progress) uses some language.

Brienne showed up for the Saturday Warrior/Maiden meeting with her hair still damp from her workout with a green smoothie in hand. She had woken up extra early to deal with her email and social media and get in a workout before meeting Sansa and Pod at the Stoneheart offices. Her workout had been particularly good, because, while most of the tweets she had seen had been encouraging, there had been a few that had given her some anger and shame to work off. One user, _red_ron_redemption_, had been especially vicious. But she resolved to leave all of those feelings at the gym.

She felt much more like herself by the time she met her team in the small conference room/Pod’s workspace next to the recording studio. Pod greeted her, but Sansa jumped straight into business.

“Okay, Bri, we have lined up at least three interviews off of Varys’s article, and Pod and I have prepped a basic interview template for each of them. We are assuming you are going to want to edit them and make them your own, but we wanted to give you a head start because they start a week from this Wednesday, and we all know you are fastidious. The goal is to start fitting in interviews whenever we can, so we can release them as a special Monday podcast episode every other week. Pod has some stuff to tell you about the actual recording set-up for them.”

“The first interview will be in person, which, at least from my perspective, will be the easiest. The next two are likely going to be over chat, so we will have to do some troubleshooting with that, ma’am,” Pod said quietly.

Brienne took a moment to absorb what they had told her and plan her response.

“Okay, so I don’t want to keep you here on a Saturday to troubleshoot, Pod. Let’s work that into our schedule over next week, since we will just be on our usual recording schedule. For today, let’s go over those templates, and then you can both go enjoy your weekends.”

Pod and Sansa exchanged a look she didn’t fully understand as Pod reached for a small stack of folders by his elbow. They looked oddly reluctant to share the information considering they had coordinated this weekend meeting. As soon as she glanced at the top of the stack, she understood fully.

Jaime Lannister.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------

_Six-year-old Brienne Tarth didn’t fully grasp what had happened to her family, but she knew it was just her and Dad now. She also knew Dad was sad almost all the time. So, Brienne turned to her dad’s huge VHS collection of action movies for distraction and comfort._

_Her favorite quickly became Burn Them All, an epic about a knight who loses his family to a mad king. But he chooses to become a knight errant, protecting the innocent around the kingdom from the tyrant, rather than seeking vengeance. The king, enraged by his inability to wipe out the knight’s family completely, hunts him down. The knight ultimately sacrifices himself to kill the king and save the kingdom. Brienne thought there was nothing more heroic than choosing justice over revenge and even life itself._

_The movie also led to her first celebrity crush, as the role of the knight was the movie debut of sixteen-year-old Jaime Lannister. As Brienne grew up, her crush on Jaime Lannister grew too. She saw every new movie he made opening weekend and began following his exploits in the tabloids. She soon grew disillusioned, as rumors swirled that he had been instrumental in the death of producer Aerys Targaryen. However, his stunts still remained some of her favorite on-screen work. They inspired her to start a blog reviewing movie action, which became part of the portfolio, along with college newspaper movie reviews, that led to her job at Stoneheart. On some level, she felt she owed her career to Jaime Lannister._

_As she grew up and found her footing, however, the tabloids made it clear he was losing his grip on his personal life. First, the rumor that he, not fellow megastar Robert Baratheon, was the father of his step-sister’s, Cersei Lannister-Baratheon’s, children came to light. Then, he was attacked on set by some disgruntled ex-employees of his father’s, ending his career. He completely disappeared from public life, only to re-emerge a year later as a stunt coordinator for his father’s company. Brienne still followed his work but felt the energy of his own early performances was missing from the stunts he created from behind the camera. Even this couldn’t totally undermine her infatuation, though she would never admit that aloud._

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

Bronn drove Jaime to the Stoneheart offices the day of his interview. Over the past week, he had grown increasingly more excited about it. He had listened to all the episodes Myrcella had recommended and read most the articles, both by and about Brienne, too. He had spent an embarrassing amount of time looking at her personal Twitter account. Though that was probably just because he wanted to copy some of her workouts. It was not at all motivated by her long legs and easy smile and perfect boxing stance. Nope. Definitely just workout inspiration. As he stepped out of the car, he heard Bronn say,

“Enjoy the date. Hope you fuck her, otherwise all that mooning over her picture will just be pathetic.” 

Choosing not to dignify that with a response, Jaime slammed the door behind him. 

On this way up to the Stoneheart offices, he attempted to school his expression into something resembling professional. He did not feel at all confident he had succeeded. If only her eyes weren’t so…

The door dinged open, revealing a young, dark-haired man, carrying an iPad. 

“Mr. Lannister? Please follow me to the recording studio. Can I get you anything to drink?”

“Water, please.” Jaime found himself oddly nervous as they moved toward the recording studio. Outside of interactions with his father, this was an unusual feeling for him. Maybe because this was one of his first interviews as a stunt coordinator, rather than an actor? He had been assured that Brienne would be focusing on stunt work, not his personal life. Maybe he was nervous being in Stark territory? There was certainly no love lost between him and either award-winning, famously self-righteous DP Ned Stark or famed, fierce magazine mogul Catelyn Stark. Maybe—he lost his train of thought as a mini-Catelyn rushed up to him with a glass of ice water.

“Mr. Lannister, I will be taking you to our conference room while Pod here preps the recording studio. Bri—Ms. Tarth will join us once Pod is done; she is wrapping up a call right now. There will be some time for you to get comfortable around each other, but then we will start the record—we want to be as respectful of your time as possible.”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------

Brienne was, in fact, not on a call. She was hiding in her office with her head between her knees. She had done her best to be nonchalant about Jaime Lannister during her meetings with Pod and Sansa—they had ascribed any odd behavior on her part to his reputation. But she was about to meet and interview her childhood crush and hero. She thought she had gotten used to being around celebrities—while she was a reviewer, others in the office did more interviews, even occasionally bringing celebrities into the office to film fun videos for their online channel. No one, not even Renly Baratheon, heartthrob du jour after his turn as Florian, had made her palms sweat this much. 

However, she thought as she straightened up, she would not be cowed by her nerves. She was a professional. She could do this. This would help Stoneheart, Catelyn, Pod, and Sansa. She had certainly survived worse than some pre-show jitters. 

Without giving herself a chance to second guess her (mostly pretend) confidence, she strode toward the conference room and Jaime Lannister. 

She opened the door, and immediately did her best to school her face into something like a neutral expression, but she could do nothing about what felt like a violently red blush. The man sitting in her conference room could have been half a god. Jaime Lannister was as beautiful as ever—going slightly gray may have even improved his looks? He finished typing something on his phone and looked up at her before she could get her wits about her. His green eyes did nothing to help her situation, and thus she failed completely at greeting him. She caught the once-over he gave her, but it did not seem hostile or demeaning. She hoped he was just shocked at her height. He rose, with his left hand extended, and walked toward her.

“Ms. Tarth? It is a pleasure to meet you; I am looking forward to the interview.”

Brienne managed to recover enough to shake his hand, then get out a quiet greeting.

“Mr. Lannister, thank you so much for making time for our show. We can chat here until Pod, my producer, is ready for us.” 

They both moved to sit at the conference table, and Brienne prayed that the shakiness she felt wasn’t bad enough for him to notice. Or perhaps he was used to women completely falling apart in his presence. She shook herself out of her thoughts, realizing she was missing what he was saying.

“—a huge fan. So, I know it is probably an imposition, but she begged me to at least ask—could we get a selfie before or after the record for her?”

“I’m sorry, who would this be for?” Brienne asked, certain her blush had flamed up again, probably worse than before.

“My niece, Myrcella. She assures me she is your single biggest fan.” Jaime sounded polite enough, but his eyes made it clear he was amused. And perhaps even a little wary. 

“Of course. I am not usually one for photos, but my readers and listeners are important to me.” 

“Great!” He grinned as he jumped up from his seat and came over behind hers.

Brienne tried to stay calm using the meditative breathing techniques she had learned in yoga, but that just meant she smelled his bloody amazing cologne even better. She did her best to smile like a rational human being, and, before she could acclimate at all to his presence, he was already moving back to his seat. 

“Myrcella will love this. I am sending it to her now—she has been texting me all morning. Mostly all caps and emojis.”

“I wish I had known she was such a fan; I am sure Pod and Sansa could have worked out a way for her to come and observe. I mean, would she want to come over now? If it works for your schedule, I am sure we could delay the record for a bit.”

“That’s very gracious of you, but she is interning in the main Casterly offices out west right now.”

Pod entered the room, clearing his throat in a manner that probably wasn’t as subtle as he believed it to be.

“Ma’am, we are ready whenever you are.”

“Mr. Lannister, are you ready to get started?”

“Absolutely.” 

As Brienne held the studio door for her guest, she noted that his grin felt ever-so-slightly predatory. She was certainly in over her head.


	3. Hot Mic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again!
> 
> I will be traveling starting tomorrow, so this chapter is going up a day early. 
> 
> One note: Brienne's opening salvo on the podcast is blatantly stolen from my all-time favorite GoT podcast, A Storm of Spoilers. If you aren't already a listener, I 100% recommend you check it out!
> 
> As always, feedback would be so appreciated.

Jaime watched Brienne settle in to her recording set up—adjusting her mic, putting on her headphones, settling into her chair, and finally laying out her notes. She looked much more comfortable as she walked through this routine than she had making small talk with him.

Jaime, with Pod’s help, was clumsily getting ready to record as well. But he kept thinking about Brienne’s eyes. And her legs. He had known she was tall—it was clear from her workout videos—but her height and her long legs were even more stunning in person. He wished she were a stunt performer so he would have an excuse to work out with her. He tried to focus back in on what Pod was telling him about levels, but he remained distracted.

He finally snapped out of it when he heard Pod through his headphones—the kid had moved into a small room attached to the booth, but they could still see him through a window.

“Ma’am and Ser, can you hear me okay? We need to do a soundcheck first, then you can start the interview.”

Brienne gave him a thumbs up and said, “Roger so far. Bravo Tango over.”

He must have given her an odd look, because she turned to him and explained, “My dad started out as a fighter pilot—I guess some of what he told me about stuck. It is silly, but I always use it for soundcheck. You just need to say something so Pod can get the levels right.”

“I see. Well, Jaime Lannister is online. Over and out.” He winked at her. She blushed furiously, and he hoped for her sake she didn’t play poker. That woman had quite the tell. 

Pod gave them a thumbs up, and Brienne launched into the now-familiar podcast introduction.

“Hello and welcome to the Warrior/Maiden Podcast. I am Brienne Tarth, culture critic at _Stoneheart_. Today, we are trying something new—we have a guest in the studio. You probably know him for his award-winning performances in _Burn Them All_ and _The Queen’s Silence_ and his more recent work on _Riverrun Alley_. I am honored to announce that none other than Jaime Lannister is joining me today.” 

“Hello. Thank you so much for having me, Brienne.” 

“Let’s start at the beginning— _Burn Them All_. You broke onto the scene seemingly overnight and then made a lasting name for yourself by doing most of your own stunts. What motivated that choice?”

“Well, I was a kid when that movie came out. So it was equal parts me believing in my own invincibility, trying to prove that I was a serious actor, and wanting to do the fun stuff myself. Then I found that the stunt training really helped me to develop my character and decided I would keep that up moving forward, if I was lucky enough to keep getting parts. It didn’t hurt that it was a blast and that stunt coordinators and performers are some of the best people I’ve had the opportunity to work with.” 

Jaime felt himself settling into a comfortable rhythm with Brienne. She was methodical—she steadily moved through his career, asking excellent questions about both the technical work he had done and the character decisions driving it. Therefore, it was pretty obvious to him when she took a moment to gather herself before asking the next question. It put him on edge.

“How are you settling in as a stunt coordinator now? How do you respond to criticism that your work is only praised because of your famous name?”

It was a question Jaime was more than used to getting. He had gotten it as an actor, since his father was a studio head, and Jaime himself had graduated from the Dayne Acting School. He had continued to get it in his reinvented career, for those same reasons coupled with his success in action movies. There was no reason it should have gotten under his skin. But Brienne hadn’t been able to meet his eyes, for the first time during the whole interview, while she asked that question. She thought he was overrated. She believed that. And it bothered him. A lot.

“What are you implying, Ms. Tarth?” He asked, his tone mirroring his father’s as best he could.

She looked momentarily taken aback, but quickly gathered herself, “Nothing, Mr. Lannister. I am simply asking if you think your first film as a stunt coordinator lives up to the standard you set as an actor performing stunts.”

“Because you don’t think it does.” Jaime was quickly moving from icy to angry.

“I never said that, Mr. Lannister.” Brienne sounded wonderfully professional, but she still wasn’t meeting his eye.

“But you DO think it.” Jaime was fully angry now.

Brienne’s head snapped up from her notes at his tone. “No. But I do think we have been having an excellent conversation about the depth of your character work as an actor during stunt training. And, as a viewer, I felt all of that on screen. I am just saying that I don’t know that you have learned how to put that same level of emotion into your choreography. Or perhaps you are choosing to hold yourself back.”

Jaime saw the realization of what she had just said hit her. Her eyes widened, she pulled off her headphones, and then she simply walked out of the studio. Pod looked horrified, but quickly recovered.

“Mr. Lannister, we are going to take a quick break. Can Sansa or I bring you anything in the meantime?”

Jaime simply held up his hand with his gaze averted. He heard Pod rushing out of the studio, presumably to find Sansa and do damage control. Jaime rested his head against his hand and tried to calm down. He really didn’t understand why Brienne’s disapproval had riled him up so quickly. Perhaps because she meant so much to Myrcella? And why did he feel so guilty when it was Brienne who had been unprofessional? He felt raw and tired.

Brienne re-entered the studio—calm, reserved, and professional.

“Mr. Lannister, I cannot apologize enough for my behavior. It was wholly unprofessional, and I completely understand if you wish us not to air any part of the interview. I can promise you that all of my poor behavior will be cut, if you decide to let us air any of it.” 

“Ms. Tarth, I promised you an interview, and I intend to give you a complete one. Let me try to address your concerns about my new line of work.” Jaime was not going to let her have the last word on this. 

After Brienne and Pod settled back into their spots, Jaime proceeded to give the most honest account of his on-set injury, year away from film, and reinvention as a stunt coordinator outside of conversations with Tyrion over a bottle of wine. As he and Brienne settled back into their easy rhythm, he discussed his fear of losing a job he loved and his fear of never finding true fulfillment or success again. He talked about the difficulty of understanding all the characters involved in an action scene, rather than getting to live with just one. He found Brienne’s questions incisive, and he opened up to her. 

After she had gone through the podcast conclusion, allowing him to plug his next project (the only reason Tywin allowed him to be on the podcast), he took off his headphones and looked at Brienne.

“I am sorry I was so touchy, but I think your complete inability to shield any of your thoughts just earned you the most honest interview a Lannister has ever given.”

“It is fine. It was so honorable of you to complete the interview, and I think the response from my listeners will be wonderful.” She was purely professional, the rapport they had established gone completely.

She stood to shake his hand, remembering to extend the left. 

“Pod will see you out, and he will give you the details about when the episode will drop. Sorry again for my behavior and for the length of the recording session.” 

Jaime realized with a shock his time with Brienne was already over. It felt too brief, yet too dangerous to spend more time with her. He followed Pod out, brooding.

 

Brienne’s workout that night was particularly brutal. She felt so guilty and ashamed of her behavior, but, at the same time, the weird intimacy of the post-fight portion of the interview had her on edge. She had never been so rude to anyone in a workplace before. She did not understand why Mr. Lannister had gotten to her like that. Actually, she did. His easy arrogance—his assumption that she thought him talented and his unwillingness to accept criticism—had reminded her of the many men who had stood in her way, both professionally and personally. She could never stomach that kind of ego. 

At least now she could put Jaime Lannister out of her mind until Pod edited and released the podcast. This episode wasn’t scheduled to drop until early next month, in order to line up with the release of the first trailer for the forthcoming Lannister project, _The Rains of Castamere_. For now, she could settle back into her routine, perhaps interspersed with less eventful interviews. She certainly wouldn’t be dealing with Mr. Lannister again anytime soon.


	4. Selfie-ish

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back from my trip just in time for (1) an update and (2) the finale! I honestly can't believe it is happening.
> 
> Today is a double update, because I have two kinda short chapters before J/B hit the ground running, so please enjoy! (I updated the tags, but I am not going to be focusing on J/C much, just wanted to address it so we all know where we stand.)
> 
> As per usual, I love y'all's comments and feedback! Thank you so much for engaging with this story, it means the world to me. I hope you enjoy the new chapters!

Brienne had forgotten two key things: (1) she had taken a selfie with infamous movie star Jaime Lannister and (2) Myrcella Baratheon was an Instagram influencer. 

Actually, she wasn’t sure she had even known about that second fact.

So, the day following the interview, she followed her usual practice of biking to work, getting in a quick workout at the office gym, and then heading to the conference room to check in on Pod and Sansa. 

“Bri, next time you release a photo, please give me a heads up. This is great publicity, but I would have loved to be able to prep for all this attention yesterday. And try to get a copy of the photo next time, too.”

“Sansa, I didn’t release a photo.”

“Yes, you did. That selfie with Jaime Lannister? That counts.”

Brienne groaned—after how the interview had gone, she hadn’t even thought about the selfie. 

“Sansa, I just took a selfie with the man because his niece is a big fan of the podcast.”

“Yes, Bri. His niece-slash-rumored-daughter, a model and an Instagram influencer. This isn’t some random fan with 100 followers, this is Myrcella Baratheon we are talking about. BUT on the bright side, we are expecting tomorrow’s episode to be our most-downloaded episode yet. And online anticipation for the Jaime Lannister interview is very high.”

“Ma’am, since we have another few weeks until the interview drops, I think we should record a short promo about it to add to the beginning of the episodes leading up to it. We don’t want to waste this excitement.” 

“Okay, Pod, let’s add that to the schedule this afternoon. Unless you two need me to help handle all this, I am going to my office to write until lunch. I have to finish my _Red God’s Not Dead 2_ review.” 

Brienne had excellent intentions about getting work done, but the temptation of social media proved too much. She opened Instagram and pulled up Myrcella’s account. The selfie did a great job of highlighting the differences between Jaime Lannister’s infuriatingly perfect face and her too-red face with crooked teeth and lumpy nose. Myrcella’s caption was simple: “Worlds collide.” Many of the comments were Warrior/Maiden fans expressing excitement about what the photo could mean for the podcast. Some were Jaime Lannister fans, glad to see him doing anything new in the public eye. And, of course, some commenters were there to point out all her flaws. _red_ron_redemption_ showed up, once again being particularly aggressive, joined this time by lockesmith and b1t3r. The attention on Twitter was similar, with some less-reputable tabloids even picking up the “story.” After a while, her masochistic need to read the comments fulfilled, she finally settled into work.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

Jaime’s Thursday was supposed to be relaxing. He had wrapped on his last film, _The Rains of Castamere_ , and wasn’t scheduled to start work on his next project, _Oathkeeper_ , until the end of the next month. He planned to workout, listen to back episodes of Warrior/Maiden, and maybe get drinks with his brother. He certainly wasn’t expecting to have text messages from four family members when he woke up.

From: Tyrion  
“Brother, only you could make tabloid headlines via an audio-only medium.”

From: Tywin  
“Your publicity needs to be handled by the studio, not by children.”

From: Cersei  
“Call me. We need to talk.”

From: Myrcella  
“You did NOT call me yesterday like you promised. I know you are busy, but I NEED DETAILS.” 

Jaime immediately deleted the text from Cersei. She had abandoned him during his year off to recuperate. At the time, the pain of that had been worse than the pain in his arm. But the forced separation, along with therapy, had helped him see how toxic that relationship had been. And now he knew he could not rekindle that. Not when he was finally getting his life together.

He decided to follow-up with Tyrion with a quick “What?” first, so he could know what the hell his father was talking about before he engaged with that nightmare. Myrcella could maybe also give him some clarity, but she was definitely already at her internship for the day. 

His phone pinged aggressively as Tyrion sent him seven or eight tabloid articles, ranging from the reasonable (Jaime Lannister Opens Up?) to the ridiculous (Kingslayer Gets Laid!). This was followed by:

“I see you employed your usual excellent foresight in neglecting to tell Myrcella that selfies with media personalities are not for public consumption.”

“Could you just tell me in English how I fucked up instead of taunting me?”

“I can do both—Myrcella posted a selfie of you and the podcast giantess on Instagram and the trash press has run with it. You apparently forgot that one year out of the limelight does not revoke your celebrity status.” 

“FUCK. Father is going to have my head.”

“I would definitely recommend working from home today, yes.” 

Jaime decided right then that he was getting in his morning workout and coffee before he texted his father back. Maybe an extended workout. Brienne had recently posted a new core routine; he could try that.

Unfortunately, even a particularly grueling workout couldn’t help him avoid Tywin forever. On his return from the gym, he was subjected to a series of texts about his complete lack of PR skills and his tendency to over-indulge his niece and nephew. However, even Tywin couldn’t deny that this was the most positive press attention Jaime had had in years, so the criticism was somewhat mitigated. 

Jaime wondered how Brienne was handling the media attention. He was used to it and, at one point in his life, had enjoyed the limelight. Brienne had been so reticent to even speak to him one on one; he couldn’t imagine she liked any kind of press. He thought about emailing Brienne an apology but realized he didn’t have her email address. The podcast email wasn’t an option, because he felt sure Sansa handled that. Brienne probably wouldn’t even want to hear from him, after he all but yelled at her during the interview and then let his da—niece post a private photo. He wasn’t even sure why he wanted to reach out to a woman who had been critical and unprofessional. 

\----------------------------------------------------------

Brienne was thankful the worst of the tabloid gossip blew over in a few days. Now, attention was back where it belonged—on the fact that Jaime Lannister was going to be interviewed on Warrior/Maiden. This news, coming so shortly after the Varys recommendation, meant their download and subscription numbers kept going up and up. While Brienne was not one hundred percent comfortable with the increased audience size, she was glad that _Stoneheart’s_ first podcast venture was succeeding. Catelyn had even sent out a memo to the whole magazine saying she would be interested in any pitches for additional podcasts. 

Brienne’s only lingering worry from her brushes with viral fame were the odd, somewhat threatening, anonymous emails she was getting now. She simply strengthened her inbox filters, though. Reading those emails caused more trouble than anything else. She was determined to just ignore the trolls until they went away. 

Besides, she had plenty of work to do without worrying about anything Jaime Lannister-related. On top of her usual writing and recording schedule, she had to do video chat interviews with both Ellaria Sand, noted Dornish stuntwoman, and Gendry Waters, the male lead of _A Girl Has No Name_. She was excited about both interviews, even though her first had gone so poorly. She had learned from the experience, and nothing was going to throw her off her game again.


	5. Interlude—2 Phone Calls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double post today! Make sure to read Chapter 4 first!

“Uncle Jaime! Tell me everything.”

“Myrcella, you will get to hear the interview.”

“Yes, but that’s edited.”

“Well, your Ms. Tarth is even taller in person than I thought she was going to be. And she is considerate—she offered to delay the recording if you wanted to rush over to observe. Of course, I told her thank you, but it was impossibl—” 

“You have to go back on the podcast now. That’s the only option. I am absolutely leveraging this to meet Brienne.” 

“Well, after this whole selfie debacle, she probably never wants to see anyone even tangentially connected to the Lannisters again.”

“I do feel bad about that, but I just got so excited! And honestly, I forget how famous you used to be sometimes. It has been ages since you’ve been in a movie, you think everyone would have moved on by now.”

“You wound me. But I was lambasted for forgetting I was famous today, so I will need you to argue that I am culturally irrelevant at the next family dinner if you don’t mind.” 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

“Dad, remind me again why you couldn’t be my first podcast interview? I absolutely embarrassed myself with Mr. Lannister. I mean, he is intolerable, but it is my job to handle that.”

“Bri, you know it gives the podcast more credibility if you have someone that is both high-profile and not related to you. Also, I am very much enjoying my hermit-like retirement, thank you.”

“I was enjoying my hermit-like existence as a writer, but it doesn’t seem like anyone cares about that.”

“You are too talented for your own good, sweetling. And I feel certain the interview did not go as badly as you think.”

“I basically yelled during an interview. I have never done that—not even when I was a kid making that little Tarth Island newsletter. I have to hope Mr. Lannister has forgiven and forgotten.”

“A tempestuous interview coming to light would hurt him more than Warrior/Maiden, so, even if it did go badly, which, again, I am sure did not happen, your secret is safe with him. I do wish you didn’t have to interview someone quite so notorious.”

“Like you said, Dad, it is good for the podcast.”


	6. Aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi y'all! I am so sorry this is posting late. I make no excuses, but, by way of explanation, I was at a wedding this weekend and my flight got delayed; I ended up getting home early Monday morning, rather than late Sunday night. I hope this next chapter is worth the wait!
> 
> Please leave a comment letting me know what you think! Your feedback has been so helpful and encouraging, thank you!

Brienne really, really wanted to hide at home the day after the Jaime Lannister interview dropped. After all the buzz caused by one selfie, she wasn’t sure she could face the fallout of an entire podcast. She had heard the edit, and Pod, being a miracle worker, had made it seem like she actually knew what she was doing as an interviewer. Truly, he had made her seem better than she was. The podcast flowed as though she had gently led Jaime into his revelations through thoughtful questions, rather than goading him into them by chastising him like a septa. Had he deserved to be brought down a peg? Yes. Should she have done it? Absolutely not. 

Her nerves, as well as her residual unease with how the interview had gone, meant she decided to run to work. The run, along with a quick shower, had her feeling more like herself by the time she walked into the conference room. Unfortunately, Sansa’s giddy energy immediately threw her off balance again.

“Bri, the listeners love the interview! They are thrilled we are adding more, long-form content. They are also really responding to your chemistry with Mr. Lannister.”

“Chemistry?” Brienne scoffed, “They just don’t know how close we came to being forced to scrap the whole thing.” 

“Either way, Ms. Tarth, the download numbers are looking great.” 

“Well, Pod, I credit that more to the interviewee than anything in particular about the interview. Let me know if you need me.” With that, Brienne retreated to her office to write. 

She had settled in nicely, due in part to the fact that she had resolved not to open any of Sansa’s many social media update emails until she had finished her review of that week’s episode of _Queen of Thorns_. However, she couldn’t just ignore an email from Catelyn Stark—she was apparently having a solo lunch with her boss. She couldn’t help but worry that the arrogant Mr. Jaime Lannister was not pleased with the final cut. She did her best to work until lunch, though she couldn’t stop worrying about the meeting. Just before noon, she headed to the elevator to find out what was going on. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------

Jaime was growing quite tired of waking up to a barrage of texts from his family. One of the few perks of having a largely cold and distant family was said distance. But apparently, sleeping in on a Monday on which he had no work obligations had been a mistake. He debated rolling over and going back to sleep, but he supposed he should just bite the bullet. 

From: Myrcella  
“CANNOT wait to talk about your interview!! Until Uncle Tyrion actually follows through on his promise to take me on vacation to Dorne, you are my favorite uncle!” 

From: Tywin  
“Next time try to make it less tragic. Overall, it could have been much worse.”

From: Tyrion  
“I am begging you to check Twitter.”

From: Cersei  
“Jaime. Call me.”

After deleting the text from Cersei, he called Tyrion:

“Just give me the CliffsNotes.” 

“Everyone loves the interview. It is honestly annoying how charming people find you.” 

“As someone who was there for the actual interview, I am shocked.”

“I thought Myrcella told me it went well.”

“Well, I couldn’t exactly tell Myrcella her pop culture hero and I almost came to blows in a recording studio, could I? I omitted some of the more intense parts for her.” 

“Brother, you’ve been holding out on me. Do tell.”

“Basically, she implied, rudely, that I had lost my passion or some such nonsense, and I responded somewhat angrily. Then set her straight, of course.”

“Of course.” Tyrion said drily. “I don’t suppose that anger was at all due to her being right on the mark.”

“Tyrion.” Jaime said lowly.

“Fine, Jaime. But I can only watch you hole yourself away in your apartment for so long without question.”

“I am not holed away. I leave in two weeks for the Riverlands for this _Oathkeeper_ shoot. I was all over Kings Landing for the _Rains_ shoot. Would you like me to take a job north of the Wall?”

“If you want to deliberately misunderstand me, that’s fine, but do try to think about it.” Tyrion hung up, never one to miss a dramatic moment. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------

Brienne had never been more thankful that Catelyn was a direct woman. 

“Brienne, I want to be perfectly frank. I find Tywin Lannister’s business practices at Casterly reprehensible. But with Arya pursuing acting and Robb hoping to produce, the Starks can no longer afford to be at odds with the Lannisters. At least professionally.”

“Of course, Mrs. Stark.”

“I think you are going to be the person to help me with this. When Sansa told me how well your interview with Jaime had gone over, I had an idea. Jaime is about to start work on his third film as a stunt coordinator, fairly close to my family home. And we’ve been thinking about expanding our podcast efforts. I propose sending you to the Riverlands to do an in-depth feature on the behind-the-scenes work on the film. We would be sending you, Podrick, and an additional podcaster to help keep up the biweekly culture reviews. Sansa would continue her social media work here. Of course, this is all dependent on Jaime and Tywin agreeing. Thoughts?”

“Mrs. Stark, I am honored you would think of me for this, but I am sure someone else would be more suited. I mean, I am a writer and reviewer first.”

“Brienne, you and Podrick have shaped podcasts for _Stoneheart_. This would be a promotion—you would be in charge of podcast content.” 

“Again, Mrs. Stark, I am honored, but are you sure I’m the right fit for this?”

“Brienne, I trust you. I would need to know this would go smoothly.”

“Well then, I’m in if the Lannisters are.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------

Jaime had missed a call from Bronn while in the gym. Apparently, the concept of a day off was lost on everyone in his life. He returned the call on his walk back to his apartment building.

“Bronn. This better be important.”

“Well, how would you categorize a pseudo job offer from Catelyn fuckin’ Stark?”

“It rises at least to the level of intriguing, if not important. Explain.”

“She wants you to be the guest host, alongside your giant woman, on a podcast mini-series going behind the scenes on _Oathkeeper_. It would be four weeks of work, to be condensed to eight episodes. They would be released in the weeks leading up to the premiere of the film.”

“There is no way Father is going to agree to have any press, let alone Stark press, on one of his sets. So this seems to be a non-issue for me.”

“The email came to me and your father’s assistant—Tywin has already given his okay for the project.” 

“I can’t imagine why—Brienne Tarth and I barely made it through one recording session.”

“He is apparently pleased with the positive press the podcast is getting. Of course, this email from his assistant also has a full fucking paragraph about ‘legacy’ and ‘the good name of the studio’ but mostly he seems to be glad you are being talked about without Cersei or Aerys being mentioned.” 

“Hold on.” Jaime took the phone away from his ear so he could check his email. As he expected, there was a much more extensive “legacy”-focused email in his inbox from his father. Basically, his choices were do the podcast or do the podcast unhappily. As much as Jaime hated his father’s control of his life, he couldn’t deny that being in Tywin’s good graces was making his transition back to work much easier.

“I guess have a second job.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

Brienne received another email from Mrs. Stark only a few hours after their lunch. She would be working alongside Jaime Lannister. She had thought interviewing her childhood crush would be bad—she had never anticipated working for weeks with a childhood crush that riled her up like no one else. But, that was a problem for later. She had to prep for an extended trip to the Riverlands. 

Thankfully, she and Pod did not have to find lodgings—Mrs. Stark’s brother was going on his honeymoon, and so they would be using his house as a recording studio/hotel/home base for the Riverlands project. However, they still had to find a new podcaster to bring along when they left in a week and a half. Mrs. Stark was very insistent that they hire internally—she didn’t want to bring in outsiders for her first Lannister-related project in years. Mrs. Stark had sent along the names of all the employees who had sent her podcast pitches, creating a pool of potentially interested options. Brienne and Pod were currently drinking cold brew and reading through résumés in their conference room.

“Anyone standing out to you, Pod?”

“No, ma’am. From my perspective, I would love to find someone who has even a little background in film, radio, or podcasts. Having some technical help would be a gods-send.” 

Brienne picked up the last résumé in her stack, not hoping for much. Everyone else seemed to have a lot of good ideas, but no real concept of the work required to create a podcast. She began looking at the document from the bottom up, as was her habit. She found it made her feel better to start with the qualifications and end with the name, as an attempt to challenge her own biases. This person was actually promising. They had studied media and film in undergrad, as well as being involved with the campus radio station. Before coming to _Stoneheart_ , they had worked for a local radio station. She was all set to tell Pod the exciting news when she read the name at the top of the document—Hyle Hunt. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------

 _When Brienne had started at_ Stoneheart _, right out of college, she had felt very isolated. No one warns you how hard that first year as a “real adult” is. She had gone from living in a dorm with her best friend, Margaery, down the hall from Renly and Loras at Highgarden College, which she adored, to a studio apartment in Kings Landing that cost too much money. She no longer had her extracurriculars and close friends to fill her time, and she wasn’t exactly sure where to start making friends as an adult. She loved parts of big city life—the beautiful parks, amazing restaurants, and public transportation. But she also felt like she was kind of disappearing._

_Three months after she started, things began to change. A lot of the guys in the office suddenly decided that stopping by her cubicle and making thinly-veiled innuendos was an appropriate way to behave. She knew she should have reported them, but she didn’t know Mrs. Stark well then and the HR rep, Mr. Karstark, was too intimidating. Thankfully, after a month or two, the majority of her tormentors lost interest. She had had plenty of practice ignoring bu lies in high school._

_She had first met Hyle during that same time. He had stopped by her cubicle to ask her about one of her reviews—he had seen the film as well and disagreed with her take. They ended up getting lunch and debating. When Hyle continued to seek her out, even after the other men had given up, she tentatively began to consider him a friend. They got lunch maybe once a week, and they chatted on the slack every day. She finally felt like she was finding a niche in Kings Landing._

_That comfort was ripped out from under her one day when she was in Hyle’s office, leaning over his shoulder to look at his screen, helping him reword a particularly thorny sentence. A slack notification popped up from the group “Beauty’s Bed Bet.” It congratulated Hyle on having the “stomach” to play the long game. It was from one of the men who had harassed her. The reality of the situation became depressingly clear, but it still seemed almost too outlandish to be the truth. Hyle’s fumbling attempts to explain it told her everything she needed to know. She walked out of his office and stopped responding to his emails. Isolation was preferable to mockery._

\-----------------------------------------------------

“Pod, look at this one.”

“Ma’am, the qualifications look good, but are you sure he would be a good fit for our team?” Brienne had told Pod about what had happened to her, in broad strokes, in case they tried to target the slightly-awkward new hire.

“I don’t love the idea of working with him, no. But Mrs. Stark insists it be internal. And he is the only person that is remotely prepared for the workload we are going to be facing. On the bright side, he knows I know what he did, so he shouldn’t try to get away with anything else.”

“So you want me to send our recommendation to Mrs. Stark?”

With a deep sigh, Brienne nodded her head.


End file.
